Go Away Home by Bodensteiner Carol

Author:Bodensteiner, Carol [Bodensteiner, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2015-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Liddie looked at herself in the mirror the next morning. A woman who was soon to be married and traveling to Europe should appear . . . older . . . more sophisticated. More something. She inspected herself, peering straight into her own eyes, then peeking at herself in profile. She didn’t see anything new. Even so, remembering his words, I love you caused her heart to pound.

She spent the morning purchasing the rest of the things on Mrs. Tinker’s list, though she was so distracted she had to go back to one store twice. Finally, she stood waiting for him on the Art Institute steps, next to the lion statue, as they’d agreed. The bronze lion, its coat colored in a green patina, its mouth open in a roar, conveyed courage, confidence, conviction. Liddie felt none of that. What would Littmann say? What would she say? How would they be different with each other now that those words had been said? Surely saying “I love you” changed everything.

Throughout the morning, she’d run through a dozen conversations in her mind. How would they travel? When? Where? Which ship? Anxiety snaked from her stomach up through her chest as she thought about being on a ship, though the president had warned Germany against attacking civilian vessels. Before the anxiety curled around her heart, she pushed that fear aside to think of where they would live in Paris, how they would set up a studio. Getting chemicals for the darkroom had become increasingly difficult here. Would it not be more difficult, if not impossible, in Europe? What about their life together? They would live in Paris. But where? Would there be trees? Grass? Where would they buy food?

“Liddie, my Liddie. I am the happiest man alive.” Littmann’s euphoria broke through her anxiety when he finally materialized out of the crowd and came toward her.

So it will be like this, she thought. He would tell her again that he loved her. She smiled, timid in the presence of this handsome man who loved her and wanted to marry her.

“My meeting with the Examiner was top of the line.”

“The Examiner? I thought it was the Tribune.”

“I took a chance and stopped at the Examiner, too. I got lucky. The editor I talked with said if I shipped him pictures of Paris—the people and architecture—from time to time, he’d consider them.” He grinned as he shifted his hat to a jaunty angle. “This is what we wanted, Liddie. Europe, here we come!”

He may have wanted that. She’d never even thought of it.

“That sounds . . . like a good idea.”

“Let’s go in, shall we?” He tucked her hand in his elbow.

She held back. Wasn’t he going to say again that he loved her? She wanted to hear that, needed to hear that. She wanted to talk about the two of them. She wanted to discover how they would act toward each other as a couple, now and after they married. But she didn’t know how to say that herself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.